Large bean bags used as a gun rest

[Michiana]

When I was a teenager I used to go shooting with my uncle who was in the navy and shot M1 Garand and 1911 for the Third Naval District at Camp Perry. He used to drive his car up in the farmers field and set up for shooting woodchucks with his Crown grade Husqvarna .220 Swift. He always had a few large bean bags with him; by large I mean about 4X8X12 inches. I believe they were filled with actual dried beans. He stacked them several layers high on the hood and used that to rest his rifle on. It seemed he never missed, even at over five hundred yards so they must have worked.


I tried looking for them on line and in stores with no luck so am beginning to think my Aunt sewed the bags herself and bought the beans at the supermarket and filled them and sewed them shut. They have some very fancy rests out there but this worked great and probably cost less than a few dollars each in todays money. Anyone ever see this besides me?

 

[Big John]

Use rice instead of beans it conforms better.

I am not Suzy Homemaker by any means but I bought some heavy jean fabric from Wally world made a template from cardboard of what I wanted my bag to look like, laid it out, cut it out, just hand stitched it except for one side.

Turn it right side out and all the seams are no on the inside, filled it with steelshot and realized it was way too heavy. Was going to use beans but I don't like beans so I did not have any but rice I have. Filled it with rice, gorilla glued the last side shut and have been using it for about 3 years.

Cost me about 6 bucks, the same things, unfilled I believe are about 30 bucks from Midway.

 

[Dryden]

Rice makes a good support bag (don't cook it first.). It's cheap, easy to make and it's effective.

 

[CountryBoy19]

I'll go against the grain here. Don't use beans, or rice, as they will both get really nasty and stinky if they happen to get wet. Use plastic pellets. You can sometimes find them at craft stores for making bean-bags etc. or worst case scenario, you can buy airsoft pellets (but they're more expensive).

 

[chipdog4]

I'll go against the grain here. Don't use beans, or rice, as they will both get really nasty and stinky if they happen to get wet. Use plastic pellets.

Tasty for rats and mice, too.

 

[boman]

I have made some nice shooting bags out of empty shot bags. I even filled them with "real sand".

 

[CountryBoy19]

I have made some nice shooting bags out of empty shot bags. I even filled them with "real sand".

Good call! I forgot to even mention that. For my "stationary" bags that I fill with sand, I like to use the cloth shot bags as well. I'm sure they would also work for a lighter, "bean bag".

 

[WoG]

I know they're a bit more expensive, but gander mountain has a bunch of relatively cheap bags to shoot on. Just saw about 5-6 different styles on Sat.